Saturday, February 20, 2010

NIF sponsored organization disrupts Israel Ballet

Update:Many have been claiming that the YNET story is factually incorrect in the Israel Ballet performance was disrupted by "Adalah-NY" and not by "Adalah" in Israel which is NIF funded. YNET has not changed or updated their story. Despite the YNET report, the Muqata blog notes this, and states that we don't know of a connection between the anti-Israel Adalah-NY organization and the NIF-funded Adalah organization in Israel.

Pushing and shoving security guards, the NIF-sponsored radical anti-Israel organization's demonstrators forced their way into the theater.

Pro-Palestinian groups headed by Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, [JR: YNET is apparently incorrect, this is Adalah-NY] staged a protest rally outside an Israeli Ballet performance in the Flynn Theater in Burlington, Vermont, on Friday.

According to an Israel Radio report, four demonstrators eventually forced their way into the theater, waving signs saying that anyone who watched the performance was "supporting Israel's apartheid policy."

Company director Dan Rudolf alerted the theater's security personnel, as well as the local police, who promptly arrived at the scene and escorted the demonstrators outside.

The show resumed after a short intermission.

The Israel Ballet Company is currently touring the US as part of an official state campaign, and is scheduled to perform in Buffalo, Brookline and Washington.[Source: Ynet]

Naomi Chazan must be extremely proud that her organization is funding those who actively encourage boycotts of Israel and Israel's National Ballet.

Advocates for Palestinian rights have called for a boycott of the Israel Ballet, which is performing Sunday at Brooklyn College. The advocates said that there would be protests at the college’s Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts to denounce what they call Israel’s “apartheid and colonial policies,” part of a broader call by some critics of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians for a boycott of Israel in cultural and academic circles. The protest was announced on Friday by the group Adalah-NY: The Coalition for Justice in the Middle East. Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company faced similar protests during an American tour last year.

Of course, the NIF CEO would rather you didn't know that NIF donations are going to this organization. the organizations which provided 92% of the slander used by the Goldstone report.

He whines about how unfairly the NIF is criticized in this week's Jewish Week.

In recent weeks, some very angry — and wildly inaccurate — accusations have been leveled against the New Israel Fund, the philanthropic partnership largely responsible for the establishment of Israel’s progressive civil society. Not only have we been accused of enabling the hated Goldstone report, but the NIF’s president, former Knesset Deputy Speaker Naomi Chazan, has been grossly defamed and publicly caricatured in an incendiary and disgusting publicity campaign.

False arguments and dangerous demonization must not be allowed to stand, and the NIF has already acted to refute both. Israelis and the Jewish community worldwide remember how easily delegitimization led to political violence when Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated, and it must be rejected quickly, in all its forms.

Remember -- if you're part of the Israel’s progressive civil society, you DON'T want Israel's Batsheva Ballet to perform... you want to support those who trash the IDF.

After all - The Ballet's political violence led to the Rabin assassination, right?

Going to Israel?Now get 2 phones for the price of 1 (and free calls too) with Talk'n'Save.

Didn't the director of the Batsheva Ballet condemn Cast Lead? Or at least that's what I heard when they performed in Pittsburgh last year. What's that phrase again? I think it's called "eating their own".

Thanks for reporting on the protest at the Israel Ballet performance in Burlington. While I appreciate the mention, I feel obliged to make a few factual corrections, as virtually all of the details in the article are incorrect. As I was one of the protesters, I am able to give a more accurate representation of what happened than a writer apparently working with fourth or fifth hand information. First of all, the protest was not headed by Adalah. I've never even heard of that organization. We were simply acting as individuals of conscience, 3 Americans and 1 Israeli. The group that was leafleting outside the theater is called Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel, and has no connection with Adalah, or with the action that took place inside the theater. Second, we never "forced our way into the theater" as you rather slanderously reported. In fact, though we support boycotting Israel as a non-violent pressuring tactic, we did the opposite on this occasion and paid $50 apiece for tickets (no small expense for a professional klezmer musician in Vermont, believe me). Third, we were not "waving signs saying that anyone who watched the performance was 'supporting Israel's apartheid policy'". We unfurled two banners which read "Sponsored by Apartheid Israel" and "No tutu is big enough to cover War Crimes". It is irresponsible reporting to place in quotation marks something which is not a quote, but a re-imagining or, to put it charitably, a paraphrase of what was actually said. To continue, we were not escorted out by police, but rather left of our own volition before the police arrived. The dancers continued their performance professionally without missing a beat. In light of your journal's careless treatment of basic facts, which is sadly typical of the Israel-apologist press, I am compelled to view all other articles published therein with a good dose of skepticism. The article did get at least one important fact right, which is that the Israel Ballet is touring the US as part of an official state campaign. Called "Brand Israel" by the government, this campaign is an effort to resuscitate, using cultural figures and institutions, Israel's image as a civilized nation in the eyes of the world, in the wake of its decidedly uncivilized recent conduct in Lebanon and Gaza, and its subsequent condemnation by virtually the entire human rights and international community. Our decision to disrupt the performance was the result of a long debate about the morality and efficacy of such an action. As performers and people in the Arts ourselves (our group consisted of a performer of Yiddish music and actor, a theater artist and high school teacher, a filmmaker, and a musician and former Israeli Air Force pilot) disrupting a ballet was not something we took lightly. It was ultimately decided that there is always a price to pay when one wishes to change the status quo and, in light of Israel's outrageous and unacceptable behavior toward Palestinians and Lebanese, and its attempt to distract attention from its crimes with brightly-colored artistic and cultural products, the price, in this case, was worth it. We are not going to let people forget the 1,400 people killed in Gaza last year, 4/5 of whom were non-combatants. We will not let people forget the 5,000 who were wounded, many who lost limbs, or who are now paralyzed for life. We will not let people forget the 6,000 homes that were completely destroyed by Israeli bombs and bulldozers in Operation Cast Lead. We were brought up to be polite and gentle people, and we don't relish rudeness, but there is nothing defensible about remaining silent while Israelis behave like savages, committing massacres and imprisoning a whole population, while coating themselves in the veneer of civilization.

2. I am not surprised that the demonstrator chose to remain anonymous, afer such appalling behavior. Your moral high ground cannot be that high if you are not willing to put your name behind your actions!

Also, after criticizing the "innacuracies" of your post, the anonymous demonstrator then included many innacurate and slanderous "facts." It is easy to throw out anti-semitic slogans and propaganda, when no one knows who you are.

3. To protest outside the theater is one thing. To disrupt an artistic performance is another, especially for people who claim to be artists themselves.

Since you seem to be so bothered by careless inaccuracies, it's quite amusing that you yourself are incorrectly attributing the reported details of the story to this site, when in fact it they come from Ynet -- as is clearly stated more than once in the post.

Btw, why are you posting anonymously? Because you're ashamed of what you did? Or because you're worried about being contacted by people from Adalah wanting to know why you're denying them credit for the protest they organized?

I am a member of Adalah-NY: The New York Coalition for the Boycott of Israel. We are not in anyway connected to the organization in Israel or the NIF. We are a small 100% volunteer group. We with other organizations issued the call for the boycott of the ballet. I personally support both the inside and outside actions of the groups in Vermont but they are not affiliated with us.

My mother and her husband will be attending tomorrow's performance of the Israel Ballet at Brooklyn College. (ironically enough, I bought them the tickets as a Chanukah present because my mother was feeling stressed and I wanted her to have a nice, relaxing, enjoyable time.) Protesting at an innocent cultural event like a ballet is totally inappropriate, and is likely to frighten the patrons who simply want to see a nice performance of Don Quixote. If these misinformed anti-semitic fools want to scream about Palestinian rights, they should go do it at the United Nations instead, where they will find a much more sympathetic audience.

Feel free to complain about the protest all you want, but don't use it as another bash-Naomi Chazan opportunity. (If you want to do that, you'll find plenty of material to your political distaste on Adalah (Israel)'s publicity.)

...we were not "waving signs saying that anyone who watched the performance was 'supporting Israel's apartheid policy'". We unfurled two banners which read "Sponsored by Apartheid Israel" and "No tutu is big enough to cover War Crimes"

Thanks for that distinction, as if there was one.

I really could care less what venue you choose to display your loyalties to. Ballet, movie, drivers license office - it makes no difference. You are clearly displaying that it means more to you to follow the mores of the left than those of your people. Best of luck in the rest of your life as you pathetically chase around values that do not exist in the cause that you have chosen.

a) as far as I know, NIF finances Israeli groups, not outside-Israel groups;

b) NIF distribution grants are online so one can check;

c) as someone who disrupted Soviet cultural events (okay, way back pre-1970) on the background of the regime's treatment of its Jews, I cannot blanket cancel any protest or demonstration act like the above. The dispute must be on the political, ideological and factual level. Is Israel apartheid vs. Islamic honorcide murders? Is Israel an 'occupier' or are Arabs 'occupiers'? Does Judea and Samaria rightfully belong to the Jewish national homeland as promised in international legal agreements vs. the indigenous Arab rejection of partition? Etc., etc., etc.

Quite a number of these groups (including Adalah-NY) are part of this activism umbrella.

From their website:"This website is overseen by the steering committee of the Palestinian BDS National Committee and has been adopted as a tool of the ICNP (International Coordinating Network on Palestine) to support efforts of networking and coordination."

Are the people who run this blog more interested in the truth or in defaming the New Israel Fund?

You publish an update admitting that you can't prove a link between the New Israel Fund and the "Adala" organization in New York, and according to the various comments posted here and your own admission, there is clearly no basis for the allegations made by your headline or the blog itself. Surely the correct thing to do in such as case is to correct the post, or take it down?

Global BDS Movement is a partner project of Badil, an organization directly connected to the Palestinian Authority. Among its donors are Oxfam (which ultimately means Soros and Ford Foundation - those same names again and again).

The Global BDS provides logistical supports for all these supposed "grassroots" movements, essentially allowing them to appear as independent actors at a superficial glance, but ultimately their strings being pulled by the same central group of organizations.

Is Adallah-NY the same as Adallah Israel and directly funded by the NIF?

The answer appears to be not.

Adallah NY ultimately receives it's logistical support and marching orders in a straight line from the Palestinian Authority.

Hey Anon - got a reason for being Anon? It seems to me that there's an "update" at the beginning of the article that states that this is an unknown at this time. Other things are coming to light though - and it seems you would prefer that this wasn't the case.

I, for one, would be happy to see a new investigation into the money trail over there also. Maybe then we could get some of our brethren to finally pull their collective heads out of their asses and start pulling for the home team for a change.

I want to know about the connections that exist between these organizations that are receiving funding from the Ford Foundation and Soro's organizations. Why don't you?

No, Jameel, I don't live in Sederot, but I've seen enough friends and family killed or wounded through Palestinian terror. Do I get "points"?

And yet despite all that I have witnessed and been through myself, I still see more merit in "my" team's principles than in yours or in Yonatans. And, there are plenty of people in Sederot who are on "my" team too.

I would agree with Yonatan- there is only one team whether we like it or not, but it is YOU who need to wake up to the fact that you're causing damage to your own team with your views.

Anonymous: This is a rather simple point -- I believe that the "Cast Lead" operation was justified for a variery of reasons.

The NIF-sponsored organizations that bashed the IDF, do not believe the operation was justified, and provided 92% of the data used in the Goldstone Report which trashed the IDF.

One of the Goldstone co-panelists even had the audacity to claim that only 2 rockets were fired at Israel from Gaza prior to the Cast Lead operation.

No one get no brownie points for living in Sederot, or for friends and relatives killed by Palestinian Arab terror.

However, those under fire (like those in Sederot) generally view a military operation which returns a semblance of normalicy to their lives as a positive thing -- not worthy of a one-sided, over-publicized media-hyped report by Goldstone.

Its a documented fact that the NIF funded organizations eagerly provided anti-IDF (and skewed) data to the Goldstone report -- which is being used to deligitimize Israel's right to protect its citizens.

It seems rather nieve that you see more merit in "your" team's principles -- as the enemies of Israel use your team's data to deligitmitze Israel and the IDF.

The bottom line is quite clear -- the NIF-funded organizations allegations and data they provided to Goldstone, are first and foremost being used by anti-Zionist enemies of Israel.

I would agree with Yonatan- there is only one team whether we like it or not, but it is YOU who need to wake up to the fact that you're causing damage to your own team with your views.

Our "team" has its rules and mores based upon 1 thing and 1 thing only - Torah. As I said earlier, you are free to do whatever you want, but regardless of whether you support your people's enemies or not - salvation will come from Hashem. The end results are going to be the same, you are just determining your part in it. You should govern your actions accordingly.

The state of Vermont follows a Tort system meaning someone must be found to be at fault for causing the accident, and that person and their Vermont Car Insurance company is responsible for all the damages. You should be aware that the details of a tort system vary from state to state.